Insight into Indian renaissance

Recruitment and Procurement : India Inc

This is the first thing I would like to tell all the high-level managers in corporate sector of India.The lack of authority and intent in decision making delays some process to the extent of extreme frustration for affected parties.Designation in Indian corporate sectors never justify the authority they are entitled to , specially when they are in the process of making crucial decision like recruitment and procurement.

Fellow-blogger Sharell gave some insight on the stark contrast in work ethics between India and western world on her recent blog-post.

After monitoring corporate quarters from a close distance and observing working pattern of some high officials in big MNCs in India , I have come to conclude that Recruitment and Procurement are very critical , complex and also most-delayed processes in Indian corporate sector. Planning is always done in an unscheduled manner leaving little scope for any back up support in the case of emergency.Most of the procurement is done with a single agenda in mind-Price.This type of intent hardly leave any scope for quality and delivery of product or services.

The process of procurement goes through so many hierarchical channels which make vendors grasping for breath.And at every stage , the only thing asked is Discount.(Even when you have already told them that this is your final price) It seems that negotiation will never end.

The typical scenario is that after you submit your first price quotation , you would be asked for your Final Prices by the Engineer.And after you submit your Final Prices to the Engineer , you would once again be asked for Final Pricesby Sr Engineer.And after you submit your Final Prices to Sr Engineer , you would then be asked for Final Prices by the Assistant manager .And when you submit your Final Prices to the assistant manager you would be asked to submit your Final Prices by Deputy Manager.And when your submit your Final Prices to the deputy manager you are asked to submit your Final Prices to the Manager and when you submit you Final Prices to the Manager then you are once again asked to submit your Final Pricesby Sr Manager.

The fun of negotiation is slowly being faded.Normally marketing people keep enough margin to distribute across three-four levels of corporate hierarchy and they actually don’t mind this painful process is going to award them order.Actually its worth the efforts , then. But just when think that everything is finalized and you start day-dreaming about the copy of purchase order , you are called again by some Deputy General Manager to give your Final Prices. This is insane now.And every time you think this is the last time you are being asked for the Final prices , you are proved wrong by the next higher hierarchical position in the corporate world and reminded that ‘Picture Abhi Baki hai Mere dost'(The movie is still on ! )

But somehow , as all good and bad things come to an end , this seemingly unending process of negotiation ends and vendors are made free , relieved but exhausted.Purchaser certainly gets a good deal and vendor has to adjust with minimum margin.Specially after he know that in the meantime that prices of raw material has been increased just one day after he secured order.Sigh !

Almost same process is followed in Recruitment , specially in big corporate.Its so amusing to see that an ‘urgent requirement’ takes more than three to six months to be filled up after the first interview.You are always told “We will revert back to you in a week” only to make you realize that their week consists of special days which are month long.The transparency is also wanted in these processes.HR officials should be frank enough to tell the outcome , negative or positive , of recruitment process so that prospective candidates can take their future decision.You can’t hold them forever.

I just hope that some day , distribution of power and responsibility is done according to the volume of projects so that minor projects are not wanting for the approval of high-level officials.The serial way of working in Indian corporate sector should definitely by replaced by parallel processes.